Gardening jobs in Colorado and Washington

[Baked Alaskan]

Hey all,

Just wondering what the scene is like.

Are there jobs? Will there be jobs in the months to come?

I've seen some stories on big money getting into the game and not just growers and other insiders.

I'm moving to the lower 48 and was a little interested, would love to hear what people have to say.

 

[supermanlives]

good luck . theres an abundance of growers already looking for the same jobs locally. unless you got mad skills and connections your most likely SOL. but if its your dream go for it . prob start at bottom at lowass wages an try and work your way up. do ya got any schooling in horticulture? I went back to school for horticulture. ipm, landscape design and irrigation, greenhouse management , ect ect ect.

 

[yortbogey]

see craigslist adds for budtenders.... all the time in Seattle... 12-15 per hr

 

[supermanlives]

I could not live on 15 an hour

 

[Jbomber79]

Lots of low wage jobs created, few good paying jobs if your a lawyer or accountant. Good luck, if your moving thinking this is the gold rush it might be fools gold rush..The big boys have already gotten into writing the laws and owning the market. it will probably get worse as we see a Fed policy on MJ.

 

[Eureka Springs Organics]

Good luck with that. Everyone else has already had the same idea years ago. The market is flooded with potential growers.

You will also find out that the way you think you should grow will have to be altered a bit. Like chopping at 50 something days on 70 day strains. Not curing, etc..

If you get lucky enough to score a growing job you will have to sell a little bit of your soul to keep it.

 

[supermanlives]

he asked about gardening jobs . any idiot can become a bud tender. I would of even done it but it doesn't pay anywhere near enough. I got an education and it would be a step back but it would be fun I bet. fun don't pay the bills tho. at 15 an hour I would have to work 7 days a week an some overtime just to survive

 

[RoadRash]

I'm thinking "Facilities Manager".

I like setting up ventilation systems, putting heat sinks on ballasts to keep them cool (and on capacitors if necessary), dealing with security & stealth, all that kind of stuff.

It would be nice to work somewhere where you can smoke with your co-workers.

 

[yortbogey]

weed friendly electrical contractor that specializes in grow rooms....

 

[yortbogey]

Canna tourist guide.... U need to be highly networked... but if organized and careful, U could make bank hosting tour's of grow rooms, trim shops, and such cannabis endeavors that the average man has never seen......

 

[yortbogey]

WA hired folks to be pot cop's... and enforce the rules of the WALCB....
similar set of dummies set up the sting operations for minors buying booze...........

 

[tleaf jr.]

I wonder if the stipulations or requirements to become hands in the garden are rigorous though, are degrees needed, I know theres been a flood of applications coming in for jobs.

 

[Arthritis_sucks]

Good luck with that. Everyone else has already had the same idea years ago. The market is flooded with potential growers.

You will also find out that the way you think you should grow will have to be altered a bit. Like chopping at 50 something days on 70 day strains. Not curing, etc..

If you get lucky enough to score a growing job you will have to sell a little bit of your soul to keep it.

Wait, what? wtf would you have to chop early for.....please do explain.

 

[Arthritis_sucks]

WA hired folks to be pot cop's... and enforce the rules of the WALCB....
similar set of dummies set up the sting operations for minors buying booze...........

This could be a good job, be the INSIDE guy.

 

[Eureka Springs Organics]

Wait, what? wtf would you have to chop early for.....please do explain.

To pay the bills. I see it more than I don't see it here.

 

[944s2]

To pay the bills. I see it more than I don't see it here.

yeah,,i think once "big money" and suits are involved,,they sure as shit aint gonna be concerned about letting trics go cloudy! lol,,its gonna be cut-down asap and strains that finish well before nine weeks,,,i cant imagine these people are gonna care,,
there just all about the money,,,944s2

 

[Baked Alaskan]

Thanks for the info!

Ya, kinda figured thats how it is. I'm not real interested in a job, just curious.

$15.00/hr would be hard to make it on, and I hate trimming.

Plus I'm moving to S. Dakota, very very anti cannabis. Their upcoming medical cannabis law vote still arrests you but you can use a medical defence, and it probbly wont make it to a law.

I am on my mobile device and dont know how to copy/paste, but Eureka Springs you should check out my thread under the advanced growing section on pre-flowering for extra crops. Its a management technique that lets you harvest a matured crop with an up to 25% time reduction.

Thanks again for the info!

 

[Marcellas]

I too have been thinking about moving to Colorado to get into the legal game somehow (or blackmarket?).. But I figure I am much too late now to make a move. I'm sure flocks of growers and such have flooded Colorado in the past year or so.

But than again, I've also heard that with it going legal - they can't grow it quick enough right now!! I don't know if this is true, but I heard the demand is so high that the supply can't support it, and ounces are going for like $4-500 (before tax!)!!
... Somebody told me the best way to do it would be to invest $100Grand in a timeshare, and co-operate a huge factory cranking out thousands of high-quality plants. The person who suggested this to me was talking about doing this in Cali, but I'm sure the same principle could work in Colorado. But this would also require some pretty big connections, which I don't have.

I really just want to follow my dream of doing something I absolutely love for a living!! Money is nice, but as long as I could survive and be happy with what I'm doing, I would be content and everything else would fall to the wayside.. I know there is some amazing growers out there, but I have a lot of experience myself after being on these forums and OG for over 10 years, + a lot of real-life experience.
.... I feel like dedication, motivation, and love for what I do is what will separate me from the others. And it would be awesome to leave this shithole where I've been "living", and move to Colorado where my parents grew up, and follow my dream!

 

[GrowingHigher]

Are there any decent, legit cannabis industry job/career sites? (monster-type job posting sites)

I am looking for summer work and would like to work with a large scale grower, breeder, plant product company. Have relevant education and specific skills/experience, but don't want to post my name and resume on some jenky site if no-one legitimate even looks there.

Time will show how this whole industry goes in the next few years, but in someways I wouldn't mind working for a larger company.

The small scale production system during prohibition will give way to more consolidated production companies, though "micro-" grow specialists will survive the same as has occurred in breweries.

The prohibition style market gives high profit margins and high independence to growers, but it does have a lot of faults too. You have to know people to get in, have to have upfront money to invest, no regulation of product quality/safety/organic certification ect. I want to deal with plants, not bureaucracy so being hired by a company may be preferable to being a rouge grower (I will always have my own garden and projects of course).

As legal markets emerge it will be a competitive job market like other industries where merit matters more than nepotism; I am somewhat looking forward to this having spent many years earning and working towards degrees in biology/botany, all while watching 18 year olds make 100k a year growing bud on a hill somewhere.

 

[JumpKickYerGunt]

I knew a guy who got a job as a grower for a large operation using his degree in molecular biology. It was a waste of his time, the people were low class, and he ended up getting a real job in science. He's much happier being far away from it and claims that all the people in recreational marijuana were complete morons. Dumb beyond dumb and it was embarrassing for him to work for such a dirty business. The scene is shady now. Don't bother getting a job as a grower for a group of losers who will treat you like shit and reap the rewards of all your hard work. Just grow great weed yourself and people will come. The weed is so bad here man, any good, true organic grower kicks ass here. Too bad there really aren't any. Get a regular job and take the extra growing cash to go on vacations and buy food. It's much better that way. Fuck recreational marijuana, fuck medical, fuck anti marijuana laws, and fuck the people that set up these bullshit systems.